Gilot

In 1943, a young painter, Françoise Gilot (1921- ) meets Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), already the most celebrated artist in the world. For the next ten years, she is his mistress, bears him two children, is his muse, and paints within his element. She also learns slowly about the other women who have been or still are in his life: Dora Maar, Marie- Thérèse (whose daughter is Picasso's), and Olga Koklowa, each of whom seems deeply scarred by their life with Picasso. Gilot's response is to bring each into her relationship with Picasso. How does one survive Picasso? She keeps painting, and she keeps her good humor and her independence. When the time comes, she has the strength to leave.

In 1943, a young painter, Françoise Gilot (1921- ) meets Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), already the most celebrated artist in the world. For the next ten years, she is his mistress, bears him two children, is his muse, and paints within his element. She also learns slowly about the other women who have been or still are in his life: Dora Maar, Marie- Thérèse (whose daughter is Picasso's), and Olga Koklowa, each of whom seems deeply scarred by their life with Picasso. Gilot's response is to bring each into her relationship with Picasso. How does one survive Picasso? She keeps painting, and she keeps her good humor and her independence. When the time comes, she has the strength to leave.

In 1943, a young painter, Françoise Gilot (1921- ) meets Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), already the most celebrated artist in the world. For the next ten years, she is his mistress, bears him two children, is his muse, and paints within his element. She also learns slowly about the other women who have been or still are in his life: Dora Maar, Marie- Thérèse (whose daughter is Picasso's), and Olga Koklowa, each of whom seems deeply scarred by their life with Picasso. Gilot's response is to bring each into her relationship with Picasso. How does one survive Picasso? She keeps painting, and she keeps her good humor and her independence. When the time comes, she has the strength to leave.

Presented by a friend of Picasso in his later years, John Richardson, Picasso: The Full Story is an accessible and comprehensive look at the life of the most important artist of the 20th Century, examining the influences and the secrets behind many of the masterpieces he created. Televised previously on Channel 4 as Picasso: Magic, Sex and Death, the programme is divided into three parts.

Part 3: Death
Death (50 mins) charts the final stage in Picasso’s life from the war years in Paris through to his time in Antibes, his later involvement with the Communist Party, the Peace Movement and the years leading up to his death in 1973 at the age of 91. This is the period the presenter Richardson is most familiar with as it was the time he came to know Picasso, but there is surprisingly little personal reminiscence. The episode nevertheless covers well Picasso’s work and his relationship with the women in his life. These later years are marked with a struggle to remain vigorous and active against the encroaching spectre of death by keeping plenty of younger women around. Francoise Gilot, his lover and 40 years his junior at the time, contributes to this section with comments on the work he created in his later years, on the paintings that show the joy of life and the ceramics in which she is immortalised. His final works, revisiting and reworking the old masters, is also examined, along with his final years with Jacqueline Roque.

Le 8 avril 1973, lorsque Pablo Picasso s'éteint à 91 ans, dans sa maison de Mougins, en Provence, il ne laisse aucun testament. Peu après, dans les différentes demeures du peintre, la famille plusieurs fois recomposée qui est la sienne découvre un héritage fabuleux et insoupçonné : des dizaines de milliers d'œuvres de toute nature que le plus grand peintre du XXe siècle a conservées toute sa vie, de ses premières esquisses d'enfant surdoué, à Malaga, jusqu'à ses ultimes toiles. Le commissaire-priseur que les héritiers chargent de l'inventaire, Maurice Rheims, pense avoir plusieurs mois de travail. Il mettra en réalité plus de trois années à répertorier un total de cent vingt mille pièces – croquis, esquisses, lithographies, gravures, sculptures, céramiques et peintures de tous formats, mais aussi correspondances, collections personnelles…

Au printemps 1954, Pablo Picasso, qui séjourne dans le village provençal de Vallauris, demande à Sylvette David, sa jeune voisine de 19 ans, de devenir son modèle. En quelques semaines, il fera plus de cinquante portraits de la jeune femme à la haute queue de cheval blonde et à la frange en désordre – dans une étonnante diversité de styles, du réalisme au cubisme. Une collaboration qui aida le peintre à surmonter sa récente rupture avec l’artiste Françoise Gilot, partie vivre à Paris avec leurs deux enfants. À l’occasion de l’exposition exceptionnelle organisée à Brême autour de cette série de portraits, ce documentaire intimiste part à la rencontre de Sylvette David, qui fut l’un des témoins privilégiés du travail de cet artiste phare du XXe siècle.

Picasso ? Le minotaure génial, séducteur, ombrageux, aux révoltes successives, épuisant ses conquêtes : Fernande, Olga, Marie-Thérèse, Dora… Tant de prénoms, tant de visages. Et puis, à soixante-douze ans, voici le grand peintre quitté par Françoise. François Gilot, resplendissante et vive, lui écrit cruellement : « Il est temps que je vive pour moi-même. A ton âge, je n’ai plus d’autre rôle à jouer que celui de maman ou d’infirmière, et je n’ai pas ce tempérament… »…